[Path Magic] What happens if you Banish a Spirit of Place?

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Anders

Spirits of Place are spirits of a location, like the spirit of a river, mountain, or forest. Banish is a ritual that gets rid of a spirit "effectively permanently." So what happens when e.g. the Spirit of a River is gotten rid of? Obviously it depends on the campaign metaphysics, but what are some ideas?

I think it depends on how you mechanically design this creature. It should come down to the traits that build them.

Powers: Totems and Nature Spirits for example defines "Dragon" as "a fierce and proud spirit of place" but which part of that template is Banish interacting with?

Are you referencing the Spirit of Place 3e template from Spirits 61?

The key aspect to that is "Dependency (Domain; common, constantly)" which would basically kill them via HP loss if they're forced out of the domain and unable to fulfill their dependency (unless it's somehow possible to buy off the disadvantage)

4e's Horror 79 also had this with with the "Genius Loci" which is a similar "spirit of a place" (not 'spirit of place') with many abilities limited as 'only in domain'.

Thaumatology 160's Banish ritual just outright causes damage to spirits so the outcome seems pretty standard.

If the river is not literally it's body (maybe something in Possesses) then it would remain behind.

Maybe if the spirit maintained the ecosystem or made it somehow reliant you would see problems though.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Plane

4e's Horror 79 also had this with with the "Genius Loci" which is a similar "spirit of a place" (not 'spirit of place') with many abilities limited as 'only in domain'.

I don't think that distinction is linguistically accurate. Latin does not have articles (words such as "a" or "the"). The phrase genius loci translates literally as "spirit of place," but it can mean either "spirit of a place" or "spirit of the place." It's like Natasha Fatale saying "We find moose and squirrel" when she means "the moose and the squirrel."

[RyanW]

There's also the possibility that you can't banish a spirit of place from its place.

The Doctor: "I sent it to its room. This is its room!"

[Plane]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I don't think that distinction is linguistically accurate. Latin does not have articles (words such as "a" or "the"). The phrase genius loci translates literally as "spirit of place," but it can mean either "spirit of a place" or "spirit of the place." It's like Natasha Fatale saying "We find moose and squirrel" when she means "the moose and the squirrel."

yeah I'm just quoting the actual text used in Horror, given this is a template that could be applied to many places there is no "the place" context so I figure "of a place" or "of place" whatever the difference might be

[sir_pudding]

Game mechanically, the "just a river" option would be to treat the river, or even the entire valley, as desecrated ritual space.

[Donny Brook]

But....!
... what if the spirit is a robot?